A "talking head" takes a hit

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is the latest casualty in the purge of talking heads, pundits, and press people guilty of crossing a moving line of inappropriate behaviour. In this case, Olbermann was in violation of NBC's policy which requires staff to seek permission from the NBC mucky-mucks before they can make donations to political candidates. Olbermann made three donations to Democratic candidates without seeking prior approval. Olbermann was immediately suspended without pay from hosting his show "Countdown".

Let me be up-front on this. I intensely dislike Keith Olbermann. I find him to be exceptionally insulting, smarmy and sarcastic, even for the world of "extreme talking heads" which he inhabits, where these attributes are generally highly valued. His over the top rant against Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown for example was beyond the pale. For those of you who did not follow this, Olbermann described Scott Brown as an "irresponsible,homophobic,racist, reactionary,ex-nude model, tea bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees". The attack was so out of line and unfair that it provoked a fellow MSNBC commentator, Joe Scarborough, to call Olbermann out on it, characterizing his comments as "rhetorical extremism", which must be discouraged. The incident led NOT to Olbermann's discipline or suspension, but to NBC's President calling Joe Scarborough's public criticism of Keith Olbermann as "unprofessional behaviour" which will "not be tolerated". Can you believe that? It was Joe Scarborough, not Keith Olbermann who almost got suspended back then.

NBC's policy of not allowing their pundits and talking heads to donate to political campaigns because it might create a conflict of interest in their on air presentations is ridiculous. Anyone who watches MSNBC or FOX realizes that all of their talking head shows (as opposed to news broadcasts by real reporters) whether the ones hosted by Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, or Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, or those hosted by O'Reilly, Hannity, or Beck on FOX are nothing more than free infomercials for their respective political sides. Olbermann's $2500.00 donations to three candidates is nothing compared to the free air time and promotion he gives to the Democratic candidates and their positions every night for one hour on MSNBC to a million viewers. The same can be said for FOX although in FOX's case there are a heck of lot more viewers making their infomercials a lot more valuable. The $2500 donation is a drop in the bucket, the policy is ludicrously hypocritical, and Olbermann should be and probably will be re-instated.

FOLLOW-UP:

Olbermann will be back Tuesday.

FOLLOW-UP:

What happened to the NBC policy of no public criticism of the NBC family? See Olbermann's most recent statement.